Connect with Us

Parksville eyes new watering rules

Parksville may amend its Water Service System Bylaw to reflect regional water conservation levels.

The idea is to bring it more in line with the Regional District of Nanaimo’s four-level system and give residents more flexibility, providing consistency through the region and still aiming to lower maximum water demands, explained Robert Harary, director of engineering and operations.

The updated bylaw would allow residents to water every other day with decreasing amounts of time available for watering at each, more strict conservation level. For example, the city would allow six hours of watering every other day in April, Sept. and Oct., but reduce that to a four or two-hour window from May through August.

The new bylaw would also replace the term “restrictions” with “conservation” and eliminates the 1 to 4 a.m. auto-sprinkler time slot to allow time to replenish the reservoirs.

The changes are also necessary because, the report from staff said, larger strata cannot physically meet the current restrictions and to avoid confusion between Parksville and neighbouring RDN watering notifications.

We encourage an open exchange of ideas on this story's topic, but we ask you to follow our guidelines for respecting community standards. Personal attacks, inappropriate language, and off-topic comments may be removed, and comment privileges revoked, per our Terms of Use. Please see our FAQ if you have questions or concerns about using Facebook to comment.